This invention relates in general to a garnish employed for covering a pillar post of a vehicle body and more particularly to a vehicle body pillar garnish of the type which is made up of a plurality of individual components or members.
A vehicle body pillar garnish, particularly of the kind used for covering a center pillar post of a vehicle body, is often made up of a plurality of individual pillar garnish members since a pillar post with a special external form can not be suitably covered by a one-piece pillar garnish, as is well known in the art. A typical structure of this type pillar garnish is illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 3 of the accompanying drawings of the present application. Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, a pillar garnish assembly 10 is illustrated as attached to a center pillar post 12 of a vehicle, which is a left-sided post as viewed from the front of a vehicle. The pillar garnish assembly 10 is made up of individual upper and lower pillar garnishes 14 and 16. The upper pillar garnish 14 is further made up of individual forward and rearward pillar garnish members 14a and 14b. As seen best in FIG. 2, the forward and rearward pillar garnish members 14a and 14b are constructed to cover the forward and rearward flanges 12a and 12b of the pillar post 12, respectively and to be laid one upon the other to cover the body portion 12c of the pillar 12. The pillar garnish assembly 10 is mounted on the pillar post 12 as follows: first, the lower pillar garnish 16 is mounted in place; second, the forward pillar garnish member 14a is mounted in place and fixed by means of screws 18, which are screwed into the pillar post 12 through the holes 14c formed in the ear-like marginal extensions 14d of the forward pillar garnish member 14a; and lastly, the rearward pillar garnsih member 14b is mounted in place upon the forward pillar garnish member 14a and fixed by means of screws 20, which are screwed into the pillar post 12 through the holes 14e formed in the rearward pillar garnish member 14b.
In this instance, the lower pillar garnish 16 is made of one piece and fixedly held in place through the arrangement in which the upper end portion of the lower pillar garnish 16 is firmly clamped between the upper pillar garnish 14 and the pillar post 12. The bent edge portions 14f and 14g of the forward and rearward pillar garnish members 14a and 14b are only hooked on the flanges 12a and 12b, respectively. In FIG. 1, designated by reference numeral 22 is a seat, by 24 a door trim and by 26 is a kickplate fitted on a side-sill member of a vehicle body.
The upper pillar garnish 14 of the prior art pillar garnish assembly of the thus described type encounters a drawback that it not only is poor in appearance in itself but also looks, when fitted to a pillar post, as if it were inclined or turned toward its lateral side due to the effect of its seam mark or parting line defined by the mating edge portions of the pillar garnish members 14a and 14b. That is, the seam mark, being formed on the external surface of the pillar garnish 14, is easily seen by a passenger of a vehicle and deteriorates the appearance of the pillar garnish 14. Furthermore, the seam mark, being located on one lateral side of the pillar garnish 14, produces such an effect that the pillar garnish 14 looks, when fitted to the pillar post 12, as if it were inclined toward the lateral side where the seam mark is located.
The upper pillar garnish 14 further encounters a drawback that it is relatively costly since it requires screws 18 and 20 and further since its garnish members 14a and 14b are constructed to be fixed by means of screws 18 and 20, separately, thus resulting in a relatively time-consuming fitting operation.